Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior announced the June 14, 2025, execution of Turki al-Jasser, a prominent Saudi journalist who had been detained for seven years. He was convicted on charges of treason, foreign collaboration, financing terrorism, and endangering national security and unity.
Saudi authorities arrested al-Jasser in 2018 and seized his devices, believing that he was behind an X, then known as Twitter, account that documented allegations of corruption within the Saudi royal family. His devices were confiscated during the arrest, and he subsequently disappeared into state custody.
Al-Jasser was a prominent Saudi journalist who wrote on sensitive issues, including women’s rights, the Arab Spring, and corruption. He contributed to the now-shuttered Saudi newspaper Al-Taqrir and his personal blog between 2013 and 2015.
In a related case, The Washington Post reported on November 6, 2019, that two former Twitter employees were charged in the United States with spying on behalf of the Saudi government. The pair allegedly accessed private user data at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. The company issued a statement at the time thanking the U.S. Department of Justice for its support in the investigation.
The Saudi government offered no transparency surrounding al-Jasser’s trial or execution. While an official statement claims the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court, there is no evidence that al-Jasser was granted legal representation, a fair trial, or access to his family. He was reportedly subjected to enforced disappearance and suffered physical and psychological torture while in custody.
Under Saudi law, executions require the direct approval of King Salman — a fact that undermines Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s frequent claims that abuses are the result of bad laws or rogue judges.
Al-Jasser’s death is yet another example of how Mohammed bin Salman has “weaponized the Saudi judiciary to prosecute and execute a Saudi man under the country’s bogus counter-terrorism law exclusively because of his critical commentary about the country on social media,” Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the pro-democracy group Dawn, told The Guardian.
CPJ contacted the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C. for comment on al-Jasser’s execution but did not receive an immediate response.